Apple Loop: The Week In Review

Keeping you in the loop on some of the things that happened around Apple in the past week.

Frenemies battle on. Samsung and Apple, in court for two days to try to mediate their way out of a patent and royalty dispute, walked away without resolving anything. Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung and Shin Jong-kyun, head of the firm’s mobile division, met with Apple CEO Tim Cook in San Francisco by order of the Northern District Court of California, according to a report by the Korea Times. To recap: Apple sued Samsung last year for copying the "look and feel" of the iPad and the iPhone in its popular Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Samsung fired back, saying that Apple owed the Korean company royalties for using its wireless technologies. Apple is also the biggest buyer of Samsung chips, having reportedly agreed to buy $11 billion worth of LCD screens, memory chips and other parts from Samsung in 2012, up from $7.8 billion last year, the Korea Times said in March, citing a Samsung insider. Cook, you may recall, said on Apple's last earnings call that he "hates" litigation. "If we could get to some kind of arrangement where we could assured that’s the case and a fair settlement on the stuff that’s occurred, I would highly prefer to settle versus battle. But the key thing is that, it’s very important that Apple not become the developer for the world. We need people to invent their own stuff." And so, the battle continues.

Enough? Apple, which will start paying a dividend to shareholders later this year, said in a May 24 filing that employees with outstanding and unvested restricted stock units will also accumulate dividends for each of those shares as they vest. All employees — except CEO Tim Cook. According to the filing, Cook, who took over as CEO last August, asked to be excluded from the offer, declining about $75 million in dividend income. According to Apple, "Assuming a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share over the vesting periods

Apple CEO Tim Cook (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

of his 1.125 million outstanding restricted stock units, Mr. Cook will forego approximately $75 million in dividend equivalent value." Apple and Cook isn't saying why. Cook earned $900,000 in salary in 2011 and was awarded options on 1 million shares, half of which vest in 2016 and the rest in 2021. If you calculate the value of those shares based on today's closing price of $562.29, maybe Cook decided he didn't need the extra money? And I mean, how many new cars do you really need? Still, kind of a staggering thought — especially when you compare it to the thinking of those who brought us the Facebook IPO.

Sir Jony. Apple's design guru Jonathan "Jony" Ive, who was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 for services to the design industry, was elevated to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for "services to design and enterprise" in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace last week presided over by Princess Anne. Ive, credited with the designs behind the iMac, iPod, MacBook Air, iPhone and iPad, had this to say about Apple's design sense in an interview with The Telegraph. “We try to develop products that seem somehow inevitable. That leave you with the sense that that’s the only possible solution that makes sense,” he explains. “Our products are tools and we don’t want design to get in the way. We’re trying to bring simplicity and clarity, we’re trying to order the products...I think subconsciously people are remarkably discerning. I think that they can sense care.” Apple's sales numbers and iPhone/iPad marketshare stats would seem to offer confirmation of that — on a conscious level.

Speaking of stats. Google's Android and Apple's iOS mobile operating systems together accounted for eight out of 10 smartphones shipped in the first quarter, according to market researcher IDC. No. 1 ranked Android accounted for more than half of all smartphones sold, with a 59 percent share of the market after 89.9 million Android phones were shipped. Apple's iPhone took a 23 percent share of the market, after shipments jumped 88.7 percent to 35.1 million units. Symbian was the biggest loser, with their market share falling 29.7 percent to 6.4 percent of the market after Nokia switched from the Symbian OS to Windows Phone by Microsoft. As for the once mighty BlackBerry, it "continued on its downward trajectory as demand for older BlackBerry devices decreased and the market awaits the official release of BB 10 smartphones later this year. In addition, many companies now permit users to bring their own smartphones, allowing competitor operating systems to take away from BlackBerry's market share." Ouch. IDC did say that "initial glimpses" of BB10 show promise, but will that be good enough to stem future declines? You don't need Siri to answer that one.

Groovy! Want to be an extra on the Steve Jobs' movie? Rich King Casting put out a call on Craigslist for extras — and people who have 1965 to 1973 cars — to be in the movie with Ashton Kutcher about Steve Jobs' early years. Check it out. "Filming a movie in Silicon Valley/Palo Alto based on Steven Jobs. Works the week of June 4th - 8th. Film takes place in the 70's. Looking for the 70's look - longish hair, sideburns etc. Also looking for People who have 1965 to 1973's cars. There is Pay when working and meals included."

A glass cube in Palo Alto. Steve Jobs, who lived in Palo Alto, would occasionally stop in at the Apple store there and at the Stanford Shopping mall, particularly after a big product launch, to see what folks thought of the new whatever. Now word is that the company is building two new stores — one in the mall and one in downtown Palo Alto — which will, combined, add up to more than 28,000-square feet of retail space, the local paper reports."It makes an elegant and dramatic statement. It is destined to become Apple's flagship store," one person who had seen the plans said. The structure features a tall glass cube with an overhang that extends well beyond the building. "It makes the space between the outside and the inside almost indistinguishable," the source said, adding that it will bear some similarity to New York's Apple Store Fifth Avenue, which also has a distinctive glass cube as an entrance.

Apple's first smart TV shouldn't be a TV?James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research, says that all those folks who bought a giant screen TV in the last year or so won't be too anxious to ditch it should Apple come out with what analysts have been describing as an interactive, smart TV. Instead? Apple should sell the world’s first non-TV TV. Instead of selling a replacement for the TV you just bought, Apple should convince millions of Apple fans that they need a new screen in their lives. Call it the iHub, a 32-inch screen with touch, gesture, voice, and iPad control that can be hung on the wall wherever the family congregates for planning, talking, or eating — in more and more US homes, that room is the dining room or eat-in kitchen. By pushing developers to create apps that serve as the hub of family life — complete with shared calendars, photo and video viewers, and FaceTime for chatting with grandma — this non-TV TV could take off, ultimately positioning Apple to replace your 60-inch set once it’s ready to retire. Sounds like a 32-inch touchscreen iMac, mounted on the wall, to me.

iPhone Watch. October. Bigger Screen. The iPhone rumor mill continues to turn, and you can find plenty of speculation about what it may/may not offer (Again, Apple has introduced a new iPhone every year since it made its debut so the news would be IF THEY DIDN'T introduce a new model this year.) Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray released this take on what to expect: The iPhone 5 in October will represent the biggest consumer electronics product launch of 2012, as well as the biggest device upgrade cycle in smartphone history. While there has been a widely reported shortage of 28mm chips that would provide the cellular modem for the new iPhone, we are confident that Apple will be able to procure a lion's share of the chips going into the production of the new iPhone...In terms of the phone itself, we believe the iPhone 5 will have a completely redesigned body style, which may more closely resemble the metallic rear panel of the current iPad...There is a 60% chance the new phone has a slightly larger 4+ inch screen. We believe larger screen size is one of the few areas in which Android devices have been able to compete...Beyond the redesigned body and screen, we believe the new phone will include 4G LTE, upgraded processor and memory, and a higher megapixel camera.

In other news, SumOfUs.org, not yet happy with Apple's response to working conditions at its suppliers' factories in China, launched a new website as part of an effort to keep monitoring the company's progress in implementing promised changes. The site mimics the design of Apple's own site — once you move the slider on the iPhone pictured on the homepage.